Richard Siemens responded to my Testers, Stay Frosty. Fight Tester Fatigue post and asked if I have any ideas on how to combat tester fatigue. I’m glad you asked, Richard, because my previous post was too lame to suggest any.

Here is what I think:

Stuff the tester can do to combat test fatigue:

Treat yourself to static goals on occasion. For example, if you say “my goal today is to verify all the fixed bugs currently on this list”, it has a firm stopping point; the current list does not include the bugs that will be on that list in an hour. However, if you say “my goal today is to verify all the fixed bugs”, I’ll bet the devs are cranking out the fixes just as quickly as you verify them and the list just won’t clear. How unsatisfying. It’s like walking up the down escalator.

Use an approach similar to Session Based Test Management where you follow a time-blocked mission. As you encounter bugs that feel annoying because they take you off track, just ignore them! That’s right…at least ignore them for now. Make a quick note, then go back and investigate said bugs when you and your team decide it is time.

Show your manager a list of all the stuff you need to do and ask them to prioritize it. You may be surprised at some of the stuff with a low priority. In fact, if you make that list long enough, you’ll probably get some stuff knocked off it.

Stop Testing and do something else. Take time each week to improve your testing skills. And don't tell me you're too busy. I don't buy it. It’s those testers who get complacent and test the same way day-after-day that make us look bad. Take a few hours each week to read testing blogs, start your own blog, write a program, improve your typing skills, read a chapter from a testing book, or just hang out in the break room chatting it up with your support team. Any decent manager will appreciate a happy employee taking a break to become a better tester in some way. Because any decent manager knows a better tester gets more work done when they do test.

Stuff the test manager can do to combat test fatigue:

Be more careful about what you reward. Instead of placing so much weight on completing test work on time. Go out of your way to reward discovered bugs, even right before deadlines; “Nice bug catch, that was close!”.

Assign non-testing tasks to testers. As testers, it’s refreshing to work on non-testing tasks every so often because testers can control non-testing tasks. These have hard and fast completion criteria and you only have to worry about doing it one way. Examples include:

Let the whole development team know how much work the testers are doing. Let the testers know too. An easy way to do this is nightly team test status emails.

Encourage a rest period during test cycles.

Every morning, before work, I put in 40 minutes on my YMCA’s StairMaster, whilst reading my Economist. I use the “Interval” workout setting, which requires two input parameters; Workout Level & Rest Level. Over the last two years, I’ve steadily been increasing the Workout Level, while keeping the Rest Level about the same. When the machine kicks in to the Workout Level, I give it everything I’ve got. Three minutes later, when I’m about to give up, it rewards me with the Rest Level and man does it feel good. Then the cycle repeats.

I think testers should follow a model similar to my StairMaster’s Interval workout. My teams have 4 week iterations. I stay out of everybody’s hair during week 1 and try to set the mood that it's a rest week. We still attempt to test as early as possible, we just don’t crank up the intensity until about week 2 and 3. We finish all new feature testing by end of week three, then begin to come back down during week 4 by concentrating on regression testing.

Just like my workouts, as we grow our tester skills, product knowledge, and team cadence, we should be able to increase our test level with each iteration, while allowing ourselves to maintain the same rest level.

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comments:

Good testers love to test, but repeatedly testing the same feature over and over quickly wears them out. The way I address Tester Fatigue in my team is by having the testers test each feature only once and then automate it.

Who am I?

My typical day: get up, maybe hit the gym, drop my kids off at daycare, listen to a podcast or public radio, do not drink coffee (I kicked it), test software or help others test it, break for lunch and a Euro-board game, try to improve the way we test, walk the dog and kids, enjoy a meal with Melissa, an IPA, and a movie/TV show, look forward to a weekend of hanging out with my daughter Josie, son Haakon, and perhaps a woodworking or woodturning project.